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Christian Horner
Christian Edward Johnston Horner (born in Leamington Spa, United Kingdom on 16 November 1973) is the Team Principal of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, a position he has held since 2005. His motorsport career started as a race car driver, before switching roles to become team principal of GP2 Series team Arden Motorsport in 1999. Horner was educated at Arnold Lodge School in Leamington and then Warwick School. He has two brothers, Jamie and Guy. He has an 'unofficial' fan club called 'The Christian Horner Fan Club', known collectively as The Hornettes. Biography 'Early Life' Horner's career in motorsport started after winning a Formula Renault scholarship in 1991. He competed in the 1992 British Formula Renault Championship with Manor Motorsport, finishing that season as a race winner and the highest placed rookie. He then moved up to British Formula Three, making his 1994 debut with the Fortec team. He moved to the ADR team in 1995, and moved again in 1996 to the TOM'S team. In 1996 he also raced in British Formula Two. Horner moved up to Formula 3000 in 1997, founding the Arden team. He stayed in F3000 for 1998, joined at Arden by Kurt Mollekens. However, he decided that running a team was more for him than driving for one because of his lack of budget and talent, and he retired from active racing at the end of the season. At the age of 25, Horner decided to continue with the team in F3000 as the owner, signing Viktor Maslov and Marc Goossens for the 1999 season. Success in the sport proved hard to find, with the team not finding a win in any of its first three seasons, Darren Manning not even being able to get one in his two seasons with the team. A new driver line-up changed the situation for 2002, with Tomáš Enge and Björn Wirdheim brought in to replace Manning and Maslov. Enge won the title that year, but was demoted to third after a failed drug test handed the title to Sébastien Bourdais. Wirdheim stayed in 2003, with Enge replaced by Townsend Bell. Björn Wirdheim won the title by a 35-point margin to second-placed Ricardo Sperafico. The final season of F3000, 2004, was dominated by Arden's lead driver Vitantonio Liuzzi; the support of Robert Doornbos helped to secure both the drivers and constructors championship titles by a large margin. At this time Horner based his Arden International Team at Prodrive premises in Banbury, before relocating them to the former 22 Motorsport facility close by. 'Formula One' In 2005, the Red Bull Racing team brought Horner to Formula One, where he was the youngest of the team principals at the time. In 2006, he jumped into a swimming pool wearing nothing but a Superman cape to celebrate the team's first podium finish at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. The team finished a strong second in the 2009 constructors' championship with drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber finishing second and fourth respectively in the drivers' title race. In 2010, the team won their first constructors' championship with one race to spare, and Sebastian Vettel won the drivers' championship at the final race of the season. In 2011, the team won their second constructors' championship with three races to spare, Sebastian Vettel became the world's youngest double-champion. Category:Formula One People Category:Team Principals